Edith and the Kingpin - Joni Mitchell

The big man arrives

Disco dancers greet him

Plainclothes cops greet him

Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening

Sophomore jive

From victims of typewriters

The band sounds like typewriters

The big man he’s not listening

His eyes hold edith

His left hand holds his right

What does that hand desire

That he grips it so tight

Edith in the ring

The passed-over girls are conferring

The man with the diamond ring is purring

All claws for now withdrawn

One by one they bring

His renegade stories to her

His crimes and his glories to her

In challenge they look on Women he has wanted grow old too soon

He tilts their tired faces

Gently to the spoon

Edith in his bed

A plane in the rain is humming

The wires in the walls are humming

Some song-some mysterious song

Bars in her head

Beating frantic and snowblind

Romantic and snowblind

She says-his crime belongs

Edith and the kingpin

Each with charm to sway

Are staring eye to eye

They dare not look away

You know they dare not look away